Bee Colony Collapse Threatens U.S. Food Provide – Food Tank

New findings from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) present that 1.7 million bee colonies died between the summer time of 2024 and the spring of 2025—a lack of greater than 60 % of U.S. business beekeeping colonies. Researchers and trade consultants say it is among the most extreme pollinator die-offs in latest historical past.

Beekeepers within the United States first seen unusually excessive numbers of lifeless and dying honey bee colonies as they ready their hives for transportation to pollinate California’s almond crops in January 2025. A nationwide survey performed by bee analysis nonprofit Project Apis M. reveals that business beekeepers misplaced a mean of 62 percent of their colonies between June 2024 and March 2025. The USDA estimates that this decline represents US$600 million in misplaced income. This consists of misplaced pollination revenue, decreased honey manufacturing, and the price of changing lifeless colonies. 

Before the rise of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in 2006—a phenomenon the place worker bees disappear suddenly from a managed bee colony—a beekeeper may count on to lose round 10 to fifteen % of their bees every winter, says Steven Coy, Founder of Coy Bee Company and President of the American Honey Producers Association. Temperature drops, lack of accessible meals, and harm from parasites all contribute to winter bee die-off rates, in response to analysis revealed in Ecological Indicators. 

“In the last 12 to 15 years, it’s been 40 percent and creeping up every year,” Coy tells Food Tank. “But those losses are occurring throughout the year,” with some beekeepers even dropping extra in the summertime months. 

Project Apis M. studies that bee losses have spiked to 70 to 100 percent up to now yr—a decline that, in lots of instances, could also be irrecoverable. “If we have another big loss…in the near future, I don’t know that the industry can survive,” says Coy.

Researchers at USDA recognized one potential perpetrator of the 2025 colony collapse: Varroa destructor mites proof against amitraz, a pesticide broadly utilized by beekeepers to regulate mites and ticks. These parasitic mites weaken bees by feeding on their organs and transmit a spread of dangerous viruses, comparable to Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), in response to the USDA. 

In their new paper, at the moment underneath peer assessment, USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report high levels of bee viruses in hives that suffered extreme collapse. Testing revealed that each one Varroa mites collected from these lifeless colonies have been proof against miticides. The authors state the “urgent need for new control strategies for this parasite,” noting that amitraz is “suspected of losing efficacy after decades of heavy use.” The researchers additionally say they “cannot rule out” further causes that contributed to the collapse. 

“ARS will continue to use scientific research and innovation to determine effective treatment strategies and solutions for other challenges that affect and cripple the nation’s honey bee population and colonies,” an ARS spokesperson tells Food Tank. 

Coy additionally believes that amitraz-resistant Varroa mites are “just a part of the reason why these bees died,” he tells Food Tank. “A colony is a superorganism; it’s a group of individuals working for the collective good. If one thing—like mite pressure—gets too far out of balance, it stresses the immune system. Then something else—like poor nutrition—can be the tipping point for colony death.”

M. Marta Guarna, Research Program Director for Project Apis M., notes the significance of advancing analysis to raised consider and handle threats to bees. “Evidence on the sublethal effects of exposing bees to agrochemical pesticides continues to highlight the need for increased dialogue with growers, producers of these compounds, and regulators in order to reduce exposure,” she tells Food Tank.

Honey bees pollinate an estimated US$30 billion worth of U.S. crops annually, in response to analysis revealed in Environmental Science & Technology. Terry Ryan Kane, a bee veterinarian and Officer of the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium, emphasizes the significance of healthful pollinator administration to international meals programs.

“There are over 20,000 species of animal pollinators responsible for 75 percent of the crops or plants eaten by people and animals and we are killing them,” Kane tells Food Tank. “We still need more veterinarians trained in bee medicine, overall pollinator health and ecosystem health. Insect populations are in global decline from climate change, pesticides, and habitat loss.” 

Key stakeholders, together with Project Apis M., the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association, and the Honey Bee Health Coalition, are collaborating to handle the numerous colony losses reported by beekeepers. The organizations are working to make sure that all obtainable details about the 2025 collapse is definitely accessible to stakeholders. They are additionally looking for satisfactory funding to research its causes and determine options to ongoing bee mortality.

The Honey Bee Health Coalition launched an open letter to the USDA, urging the company to “maintain the funding and operational capacity of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) honey bee research units nationally.” 

The letter additionally asks that USDA bee researchers be approved to share their evaluation of rising findings associated to the 2025 colony collapse. They write, “Our beekeepers, farmers, and communities depend on it.”

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Photo courtesy of Kateryna Hliznitsova, Unsplash.